"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
- Theodore Roosevelt

Here's a Wise Guys prediction: The cost of sequencing an individual's entire genome will fall to under $1,000 within five years. There's already a $10 million X Prize on the line for a team to do rapid genome sequencing for under $10,000. Several teams are already in the running. If you take the "rapid" out of the requirement, then it seems likely the sequencing could be done for less. (Engineers often use the line: "Fast, cheap, or good. Pick two.")

Even if our exact prediction doesn't come true, the change is coming soon. Complete human genomes have already been sequenced and published, and it's a high-priority project for science. This means that public policy has to keep up -- remember, we're voting on a six-year Senate term in November. Our lawmakers need to be thinking about the ethical and legal issues involved immediately, if not sooner. And if voters aren't well-informed, then it's going to be hard to hold their feet to the proverbial fire. Think, for instance, about these questions: Will you be obligated to tell your insurance company about genetic conditions you carry if you pay for testing out of your own pocket? Can they drop you from coverage if you refuse to get your genome sequenced for their records? Who will pay if you have a predisposition of some sort but could have made lifestyle choices that would prevent you from suffering from the disease later? Should the insurance company pay for you to get preventative care? Should you? What if you choose not to get preventative care and end up getting a disease that the tests told you would emerge later?

A couple of airlines have gone out of business in the last few days:
Aloha and ATA. The future of air travel in America could be headed for huge changes if we end up with fewer regular air carriers and more flight-on-demand services.